You can kill a kenya tree it takes some specialness on the part of the person that can but it can be done. I gave a friend my kenya tree that outgrew my 24 gallon tank with in a week it was dead. I can't get zoas to grow but I can give another friend 3 polyps from a colony and within a month his is a mini colony and mine is just struggling along.

Depending on your water quality you can do corals with tap water but it is better to wait until you get your ro unit. While you are waiting do a lot of research and shopping around.

Be careful what you put in your tank. As you progress, things like mushrooms and kenya tree corals become a plague. Kenya tree corals are right up there with aptasia as far as I'm concerned!
I agree that a green sinularia leather might be a better option than a kenya tree. They are bright green at least, and stay mostly in one colony, instead of breaking apart and sprouting up all over the tank.
Here's a picture of one I put in a tank i maintain-
It seems to never look unhappy, no matter what's going on.
What lighting did you end up with?

Heera are you switching to RO at the moment or did you finish switching last week? Did you have corals in before you were 100% RO or not?
Mr X I ended up with 2 T8s. One is called 'Marine Glo' and is actinic. I don't know what the other is called but the guy in my lfs said it could support corals. I do know it has a high colour spectrum for quite a lot of colours though.

Heera are you switching to RO at the moment or did you finish switching last week? Did you have corals in before you were 100% RO or not?
Mr X I ended up with 2 T8s. One is called 'Marine Glo' and is actinic. I don't know what the other is called but the guy in my lfs said it could support corals. I do know it has a high colour spectrum for quite a lot of colours though.

Your corals might not die under t8 bulbs, but they will never thrive. It is just not enough light for corals IMO. T5 would have been a better choice. Your lfs is obviously not educated enough in keeping a reef tank.

I run a T5 setup with my corals. I have some that are doing straight amazing so far, my Duncan is growing a new head, my ric continues to flourish even though it has almost 0 base for over a week and was knocked all around my tank. I have 2 mushroom leathers, one I've had since my first corals arrived in the tank and it is doing well, standing tall and polyps fully extended. That is my green one. The other one I got last week and is showing signs of doing well as well, just adjusting. That one is purple. Cool thing is that when I bought both of them they were tan under LFS lighting. I splurged and picked up a moon brain coral that has done well. I had him on the sandbed for a month and saw he was irritated and moved him this week onto rock.

Zoas were covered earlier too and I am gravitating towards the same mindset. They were open and looked fine for the longest time. They closed up last week and don't really want to open all of their heads. I moved them up another level in my tank hoping it would help. Colony has 15-20 heads.

As for the "weed" corals that I keep...My kenya tree was the first coral I placed in the tank. It has shown no signs of throwing more of itself around my tank, it has only gotten taller. The green star polyp...well I got it last week off reefs2go. It is still nothing more than looking like purple paste on a rock...I'll keep you informed on that.

You should return your T8 setup and get a T5. Pretty much everyone I have run into in the hobby runs them unless they are into SPS and do metal or LED setups...haven't gotten there and you aren't there either so I sure wouldn't be worried about it. T5 or bust IMO.

I didnt buy a new hood I used my original hood and replaced the lights. Would I be ok if I added an LED strip?
Also I knew it couldn't support many corals I had just planned on some low light corals. Would they not be ok without any more light?

I know X, you have been warning me 5 minutes after I threw it in the tank!

It really is cool looking...I seem to have a soft spot for softies. Maybe rather than a Kenya tree one of the others in the "tree" family would be good? Have done 0 reading into it, just know that they exist.

Start with the easy ones, after you switch to RO/DI water. Kenya is okay, just clean up any frags it drops. Any of the brown soft corals would be okay. Zoas are a bit harder, but you should try those pretty soon.